According to what I've read, SpaceX tried to use parachutes to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9, but it did not survive reentry.
Now they plan to use 2 separate rocket burns to land:
Reentry ...

I've read in @geoff's answer that SpaceX is doing some experimentation that may lead to fairing recovery capability. In fact I remember hearing Elon Musk mentioning a few years ago that it was being ...

As evidenced by the bright exhaust plume at launch, the billowing black smoke rolling out of the flame trench during static tests, the wispy grey effluent from the Merlin Vacuum engine, and the layer ...

Presumably, the booster would be a very light, very tall tube (Most of the fuel spent) standing on 4 fairly small legs on a ship in the middle of the ocean. It would also still contain some LOX and ...

SpaceX's attempt at a reusable first stage rocket sounds amazing, but how they're going to get it to land back on the launchpad is beyond me. Assuming that the first stage will separate with a speed ...

Now that a Falcon 9 first stage has successfully landed after a launch mission, I want to know how the first stage can avoid burning up when coming back down to earth.
There doesn't appear to be any ...

I understand that the static test is a general test of pre-launch procedures, but risking a multi-million dollar payload for a test seems remarkable. Couldn't they use a mass simulator or something? ...

Based on the aborted launch on Thanksgiving 2013 of the first Falcon 9 v1.1 from Florida, we know that an issue occurred where oxygen got into the ground based TEA-TEB sources.
I understand that TEA-...

This answer discusses the three methods that the Falcon 9 1st stage uses for attitude control during re-entry and landing. They are: cold nitrogen jets, "hypersonic" grid fins, and thrust vectoring of ...

I was reading the comments in this Reddit and I'm confused. How will Sherpa and Formosat-5 be configured inside the Fairing, and then deployed. One comment seems to suggest that Formosat-5 is one of ...

I just saw this video of supposed "SpaceX Rocket Camera Landing Footage Fakery" with over a million views.
The narrator repeatedly says it's complete garbage because he doesn't understand and would ...

If you look at the daylight photos of the landed first stage of the Orbcomm G2 Falcon 9 mission, there is all sorts of soot covering stuff in interesting patterns.
What elements of the soot pattern ...

Watch any of last year's SpaceX LEO satellite deployment missions's broadcasts in YouTube, and you can see views from at least several different cameras. At least two on the 2nd stage nozzle, at least ...

This comment below this question has me somewhat convinced that it would be hard for a Falcon 9 booster to abort a landing at the last minute (say within the last 100 meters or something like that) ...

I was watching the live stream of the Iridium-5 launch and they mentioned that NOAA had restricted their ability to live stream the second stage and that SpaceX was working to remove this restriction.
...

What are the reasons for using 9 engines in the first stage of the Falcon 9? Why not 8 or 10? Looking at the Raptor engine, they seem to be looking at 9 engines again. Is there some specific advantage ...

The rocket would keep same descent system as now (no parachute). But instead of landing on feet, it would have long grid fins on its top that would be catched by an elevated cable net.
The previous ...

One of the changes made to the Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust was using supercooled liquid oxygen at 66 K (-340 F) as well as chilled RP-1.
I've seen various claims that this is a first in the industry. ...

I'm in love with SpaceX and Falcon 9, I watch every live stream and the most special, most amazing, most thrilling part of each launch is the 1st stage landing. Seeing the smoke (or vapor) clear and ...

I thought it would be fun to make a basic simulation of a first-stage fly-back of SpaceX's Falcon 9, but was wondering what mathematics is used to perform something like this. Looking at this page: ...

On a recent launch video, the gantry is at an angle and only loose tethers are attached as the rocket is prepared for launch. What is keeping it upright and in place at this point?
The engines haven'...

According to the October 2015 revision of the Falcon 9 User's Guide, the Falcon 9's first stage Merlin 1D engines have a 70%-100% throttle range, while the second stage Merlin 1D Vac engine has a 38.5%...

On the recent Iridium 1 launch the separation of the first and second stages can be seen at T+3:50. In the following screenshot we see the second stage burning at the lower left of the frame and the ...